UH Writers Take Center Stage During Oct. 11 Gulf Coast Readings

Autumn brings falling leaves and changing colors to Houston’s landscape. As Houston’s literary lovers say farewell to summer, they can greet a new season of readings courtesy of Gulf Coast  Journal.

The next edition of the popular Gulf Coast Reading Series kicks off at 7 p.m., Oct. 11  in Rudyard’s British Pub. This free event will feature UH Creative Writing Program (CWP) students David Tomas Martinez, Eleanor Boudreau and Conor Bracken. Guest reader Jamaal May also will share works.

Doctoral student Martinez edits Gulf Coast’s Reviews and Interviews section. His poetry has appeared in publications Forklift, Ohio, Poetry International, Drunken Boat and Caldera Review. He also has served as poet for Border Voices.

Boudreau is a doctoral student and was a semi-finalist for the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize in 2012. . Her works have appeared in the Denver Quarterly.

Bracken, a Master of Fine Arts student, has had poetry published in Bodega, The Foundling Review, Lungful!, The Oklahoma Review and other publications.

May recently won the 2013 Indiana Review Price and his poetry has appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares and The Believer. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College and fellowships from Cave Canem and Bucknell University. This year, his first collection of poetry, “Hum,” was published.

 Founded in 1986 by Donald Barthelme and Philip Lopate, Gulf Coast spotlights the literary and visual arts communities. Gulf Coast is a partnership between CWP, the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston and the Menil Collection. The journal recently merged with arts publication Art Lies. The merger will expand Gulf Coast with 40 additional pages dedicated to visual art and critical art writing. Its first issue following this merger is due this month. To learn more about the Gulf Coast journal and the reading series, visit www.gulfcoastmag.org.

As part of UH's English department, CWP offers fiction and non-fiction writers and poets intensive training in both creative writing and literary studies. It offers two graduate degrees: the Master of Fine Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. CWP's noted faculty includes award-winning authors and poets such as novelist Antonya Nelson, poet and non-fiction writer Nick Flynn, graphic novelist Mat Johnson and poet Tony Hoagland. To learn more about the program, visit www.class.uh.edu/cwp/.

 

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